It is my hope that the power of our words will sort things out. I'm here to argue in the original sense of the word, and while I am ultimately interested in the

It is my hope that the power of our words will sort things out. I'm here to argue in the original sense of the word, and while I am ultimately interested in the broad consequences of drug laws in the US, I consider it healthy and productive to first focus on an indisputably negative consequence, physical harm -- especially when it has been proposed that these laws have resulted in more of this than any war in recent history. If we can't talk through this point, a fair treatment of broader and less easily chracterized consequences is hopeless.